In His Sister's Eyes By Saving Just This One
by lostladyknight
Summary: Nick always knew how much he loved his sisters and brother--no matter how far away he lived. He just hadn't ever stopped to realize how much he meant to them, too. Based on Garth Brooks' "The Change."


**A/N: Okay, so I wrote this for the Talk CSI: Nick Fic Songfic Challenge #3 over the summer. I finally decided to come out of my partial hiatus and post it here on . Anyway, so this piece is just a simple chat between Nick and one of his sisters, Becky. Enjoy!**

**Also, Bauerfreak and I are, and have been for a long time now, working on the update of Symphony of Change. Be looking for it, it'll be up eventually. :-D**

**Oh, and I'd love some reviews if you don't mind. **

**-LLK**

* * *

In His Sister's Eyes

(By Saving Just This One)

--

_One hand,  
Reaches out. _

Nick, who had been lounging uncomfortably on his parents living room couch sat up and turned to look at his sister, the only other person in the room. "Hey that's a good song. Turn it up."

"That's your ring tone on my phone, Nicky," she told him with a half grin. She waved the phone back and forth in his face so he could see a picture of himself on her screen. "You butt dialed me."

"Oh, uh, sorry," Nick offered as he shifted again and pulled his phone out. He looked down at the screen and showed his sister that he was in fact calling her. "Sorry Beck."

_By saving just this one._

They both cut off their phones and laughed quietly at the situation for a moment. It seemed that Nick was always butt dialing people when he was at home–something that almost never happened to him when he was at work or in his home in Vegas.

"I didn't know you liked that song," Becky said, offering him her phone so that he could see which songs were assigned to which of their family members. "I've got one on there for everyone."

"Yeah I like it," he said. Reading through the list of their siblings names and the songs she'd chosen for each of them. "How come you picked it for me though?"

"Well because I'm proud of you," she smiled at him and looked around the room. "And it reminds me of you."

The whole house was tastefully decorated in that southern-sophisticate charm. Something that only their mother would have been able to pull of in any home that wasn't in a movie. The living room, however, wasn't immaculately decorated. Instead the walls were peppered with photographs of Nick, Becky, and their other five siblings and their children and in some cases their children's children. Pictures ranging from when they were days old all the way up until the past week.

Nick focused on a photograph that had long been one of his favorites. He and his brother were dressed to the nines with their eldest sister Teresa standing between them on her wedding day. He was eleven that day, Brian fifteen, and Teresa twenty-three but for right then they could've all been six considering how close they were. He remembered how proud he and Brian were that day and how beautiful their sister was.

"Yeah, but you're proud of all of us," he reminded her. "If there's one thing that any of us got from Mom it was family pride."

"Well there are two other reasons."

He followed her gaze to an image of the two of them when they were young. It was Christmas day, she was six he was four, and she'd grabbed him right before he'd gotten to open the biggest gift under the tree-hugging him so tight his face had turned a little red. He still remembered how much the rest of the family had laughed.

"You remember telling me about that girl you saved?" She asked, shifting in her seat a little but still reclining back on it like she was a teenager. "The one whose family was murdered and those boys dumped her in a lake?"

"Yeah Cassie," Nick remembered all too well. He chewed his lips and looked around at the walls again. "I just knew she was still alive–too smart to let those punks kill her."

"Right but you know I'm a CSI too and I couldn't have done it," she said quietly. They both noticed a picture of their father, young still, holding a baby Beth and standing beside a very pleased looking gentlemen. It was the first case anyone had ever told their father he couldn't win. He won. "If they'd told me that I couldn't do it I would have just given up. That little girl is alive today because you got Dad's stubborn gene."

Truthfully Nick had always felt a little guilty that he hadn't been able to save Cassie sooner. That he hadn't been able to save her family. That, because of him, she had to live the rest of her life without the three people she loved most. "No, she's alive because I did my job and followed the evidence."

_And I hear them saying you'll never change things._

They had been playing the song softly on her phone while they talked. Nick felt startled that this was the lyric that resonated through their conversation. He could see that Becky had the same feeling. They both smiled at one another and looked away.

It reminded him of all the knowing glances that he'd shared with his siblings throughout the years–and of one photograph in particular. He searched the walls for it. It was taken on one of their father's birthdays when he was still in diapers. The entire family was gathered around Judge Stokes and a cake but two members weren't looking at the camera. Julie, Brian's twin sister, and their third-oldest sister, Mary, were looking at one another. According to legend exactly two seconds after this picture was taken the prank cake that they'd made for their father's birthday exploded all over the whole family.

"You can be modest about it all you want Nicky," his sister told him. "But that little girl is alive because of my baby brother. And I am proud of that."

"Thanks."

Nick looked at a picture from the day he graduated high school. He stood in the center as his five sisters and brother gathered close around him. This was a "kid picture" tradition. No parents or nieces or nephews allowed. Nick distinctly loved that tradition even though he'd groaned about it at each of the six graduations he'd been to before his own. All seven of those photographs hung in that room.

"It's not the only reason why that song makes me think of you though," she said quietly. She stood from her chair and moved to the door that led away from the living room. "I played that song non-stop the day Mom called to tell us you'd been taken by that crazy girl and her father. The day they told us that you were buried someplace and nobody had any idea where."

The sound of the song followed his sister out of the room and through the house, growing fainter with every step she took away from him. He couldn't help but think of every time she'd said 'I love you baby brother' to him and how every time, even now, he'd always complained and said that she was only two year older than him–and also one of the babies of the family.

_As long as one heart still holds on,  
Then hope is never really gone._


End file.
